1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to patient transport and positioning systems and more particularly to systems for transporting a supine patient from a stretcher, gurney, litter or similar device and into a prone position on an operating room table and positioning for spinal or general surgery and after surgery a prone positioned patient is transported back to stretcher, gurney, litter or similar device in original supine patient position.
2. Description of Related Art
Various devices are commercially available for positioning patients on operating room tables and several patents disclose devices of that nature. Some of these devices basically comprise inflatable balloon, pads or mattresses. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,313 (Ryder et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,007 (Hasty), U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,012 (Wright), U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,900 (Shaw), U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,294 (Wess), U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,724 (Sharrock et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,574 (Sharrock et al.) and published application U.S. 2002/0040501A1 (Sharrock et al.). Other devices basically comprise mechanical tables for rotating a patient. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,999 (Thomas et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,823 (Sitta), U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,281 (Reich), U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,232 (Wright et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,220 (Lamb et al.).
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
While the above devices may be generally suitable for their intended purposes, they leave something to be desired from one or more of the following factors, complexity, ease of use, effectiveness, adaptability to conventional operating room tables and transportation devices (e.g., gurneys, etc.).